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Farmers Find Rewards in Helping Bog Turtles

Deborah WeisbergThe bog turtle, whose numbers have been halved in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic states.

The future of the bog turtle, North America’s tiniest reptile and one of its rarest, is in the hands of private landowners who are being given incentives to help it recover, wildlife biologists say.

“We’re engaging so many partners in various projects that for the first time in five years, I feel we’re really moving forward,” says Alison Whitlock, the bog turtle recovery coordinator for the federal Fish and Wildlife Service, which is sponsoring a conference this week in Langhorne, Pa., for a species-status review.

“We’re finding new populations in areas not surveyed in a long time,” she added.

These sites, particularly in the limestone belt that encompasses parts of Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey, are wet sedge meadows that contain entire communities of specially adapted plants and animals. Among these are the Canadian burnet, a plant belonging to the rose family; the Baltimore checkerspot butterfly; and bog turtles, as well as the mounds of tussock sedge grass and moss hummocks on which they lay eggs.

Most of these marshy pastures are owned by farmers and others who can now be compensated up to $23,000 by the federal Department of Agriculture for each acre they agree to restore and protect.

Bog turtle numbers in seven Northeastern and mid-Atlantic states, from Maryland to Connecticut, have dropped by half in the past 20 years. While some turtles have fallen prey to the illicit pet trade, the biggest blow has been habitat loss or fragmentation as a result of development.

“Bog turtles are a semiaquatic species endemic to wetlands fed by springs and seeps, where groundwater recharge is critical,” said Scott Smith, an endangered-species biologist with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. “They lay their eggs on elevated vegetation, but they need to be able to burrow in mud to escape raccoons, foxes and other predators.”

“When you develop and create a lot of impervious surfaces, you alter groundwater budgets, and you may not get recharge,” he said.

Mr. Smith is one of dozens of biologists from federal and state agencies and conservation organizations working to engage landowners in the recovery of bog turtles, which were listed as threatened in 1997 by the federal government and have endangered status in some states.

One of the more successful approaches is the Wetlands Reserve Program, which is administered by the Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. Enrollees are paid to restore and protect fens and their upland buffer zones and guard against alterations to their hydrology, according to Hathaway Jones, who runs the program in Pennsylvania.

“Before this, we didn’t have a good way to preserve bog turtle sites,” he said. “But Congress set aside money to conserve wetlands. We’re well funded and can make good offers to farmers who would have no other use for this land.”

The Fish and Wildlife Service and the Agriculture Department provide landowners with restoration plans that promote open-canopy habitat. That means removing woody vegetation like red maple and the multiflora rose, and minimizing regrowth through a surprisingly simple means: using livestock for controlled grazing.

“We make the call about whether grazing should be included in a management plan,” said Jessica Groves, a Wetlands Reserve Program manager. She said that the grazing is carefully regulated to protect fens from nutrient impacts and damage to turtle nesting sites. “If fencing is considered part of the restoration, we can pay for that,” she added,

Restoration grazing in Maryland has even spawned niche entrepreneurial opportunities for beef cattle and goat farmers, who have found a profitable way to fatten their livestock for market, Mr. Smith said.

“I know of at least one company that is leasing its goats to folks enrolled in the wetlands restoration program,” he said.. “It’s a good example of market-driven conservation that’s creating a win-win for the goat farmer and the landowner.”

Mr. Smith called the wetlands restoration program the best tool scientists have for ensuring bog turtle recovery, especially when it involves contiguous sites.

“We know that if we enhance habitat and make it suitable, bog turtles will colonize,” he said. “Our goal is to create connectivity among known sites. Enabling animals to cross watershed boundaries helps maintain crucial gene flow.”

Enrollment has grown to include more than 1,000 acres, and enthusiasm is growing among the landowners, Ms. Whitlock said. “The program is helping people understand what an amazing thing they have on their property and encourages them to take ownership, and they absolutely love it.

“They keep an eye out,” she said. “They call police if they see something they don’t like. They are actively involved.”

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